Wednesday, July 1, 2009

I feel so punk as fuck. These three punk bands, all of varying versions of the genre (one day I will learn the terminology for punk styles), took Divan Orange to its motherfucking knees. Too bad I haven't got the same fire in me to give rebel yells and knock over garbage cans or deface things for fun. I guess I got old, but I still love good punk music. I just listen with earplugs in my ears now to preserve what I've got left of my hearing for the next 65ish years of my life. I want to be long lived and hear punk music.

Okay, so most of these bands are a bit wide of the radar, so I'll just scrub in here and let you know what they're about.

Futensil, whose name I think comes from the words futile and utensil put together, although I am not certain. Fitting, I suppose for a noise band trio that straddles the fine line between musicality and deconstruction. They never went so far into the sound that I lost a sense of the song, almost like a rubber band stretching to its limit, and then safely snapping back into shape. They projected a kind of maniacal pleasure and I imagine I'll be seeing these kids around again. Put 'em on your buzz band list.

Devil Eyes has been carving a niche in the scene with regular appearances, no two of which are alike. Art-punk-blues? Garage-swamp-fireworks? Hard to classify, because there's always some spectacle that accompanies the rugged, raw, and raging music. The band has a subversive, won't-be-members-of-any-club-that'll-have-us ethos. Maybe its because they abuse (tease? torment? or simply experiment with?) every variation of sound they can make in a show? Don't be fooled by the bullwhipped guitar schtick (yes, because it does happen). Just take a few moments to watch the band members play their respective and exchanged instruments and you know they have talent aplenty. Makes me think... this band could do and be anything they want and so they do exactly that -- they are everything all at once, bringing genres and variants into a chaotic mash. This band is a local must see because they take you places you didn't know you could go. In a way, its kind of heady stuff, but that realization only comes later, on reflection.

Finally, the headliners, the zoobombs, Japan's brilliant mad mash of garage punk meets... I don't even know. I'm told its blues, but that didn't come to mind at all during this show. Post-show, their mp3s were more bluesy, but I didn't really sense that at all at Divan O. The sheer energetic frenzy is wonderful to behold. Every song is an earscape and body bone rattler. Instrumental jams with vocals I barely caught. But, even better, there's no egotistical posturing, no nudge-nudge wink-wink meta-music going on here. This is sheer joy, a complete energetic transmission in which the conductors pick up no friction, and that is what makes live music my favorite past time.